


Stay

by AHeartForStories



Series: AHeartForStories' Whumptober 2020 [8]
Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: Canon Divergence - Hiccup Leaves Before The Final Training Test, Emotional Whump, Gen, Whump, Whumptober 2020, astrid whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-08
Updated: 2020-10-08
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:27:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,098
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26900623
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AHeartForStories/pseuds/AHeartForStories
Summary: Written for Whumptober Day 8. Set during Httyd 1. "Don't say goodbye." Astrid doesn't want him or the Night Fury to leave. Doesn't matter if Hiccup thinks this is the only way to keep everyone safe, she doesn't want him to leave, she wants him to stay. But he doesn't listen and before she can say anything else, they take off and leave her behind.
Relationships: Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III & Astrid Hofferson
Series: AHeartForStories' Whumptober 2020 [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1949440
Comments: 10
Kudos: 39





	Stay

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the prompts "Don't say goodbye" and "abandoned".
> 
> Constructive criticism is appreciated!  
> Enjoy!

"We're leaving."

Hiccup's decision barely registers with Astrid as she stares at him, dumbfounded by what she hears.

"What?" She asks him to repeat, wondering if she even heard that right.

Meanwhile, Hiccup is by his dragon's side, checking the saddle and the straps keeping the entire contraption to steer is prosthetic together. They have a long flight ahead of them and he wants to be sure that they can make it. He hasn't flown that far or long before and though Toothless has been able to fly all his life, it'll be different with the replacement tailfin.

Toothless watches him curiously, turning his head as far as it can go.

"Toothless and I, we have to go. We're leaving Berk." He clarifies, not looking back at her as he probably knows that isn't something she would want to hear. He doesn't want to see what kind of face she might be making.

If he does, he may hesitate and go back on his decision.

"Wha- go?! Go where?!" As expected, she doesn't like what she's hearing. There is a look of shock on her face, of disbelieve. She's not even sure if she's hearing all of this right. She can't be, Hiccup can't just leave.

"I don't know yet, that's something we'll figure out once we're out there." Hiccup tells her, turning away from Toothless to face Astrid at last.

"But Berk is your home." She reminds him as if he needs to be. Doesn't he care that he'll be leaving his home behind? His father? Surely he doesn't want to leave his mentor behind either?

"It won't be home for much longer if we stay here." He says, but Astrid is about to argue against that. She wants to argue.

"Astrid, I can't kill that dragon, and no, I can't tell dad about that queen dragon either. I'll just be putting Toothless' life at risk for something he may not even listen to." So he quickly continues, stopping her from saying whatever it is that she wants to say.

"So you're just going to leave?" Astrid asks with a hint of judgment, her arms crossed and a glare in her eyes. Warriors don't run, Vikings don't run. Hiccup, a Viking Chief's son, shouldn't be running.

"Yes, I'm leaving." The sternness in Hiccup's voice sends her reeling just a bit as she didn't expect this kind of tone to come out of him of all people. That's not the kind of answer a sniffling coward would give.

Astrid stares at him, unsure of what to say next. A sense of betrayal makes tears well up in her eyes and she hates that. She refuses to cry for this.

Hiccup moves from one foot to another, uncomfortably.

"I won't be gone forever, okay? I just need to figure out how to tell my dad about Toothless and how we're even going to deal with this big dragon. Because there's no way we can just sail towards Dragon Island and hope we can take it." He tells her, hoping that the reassurance that this won't last forever will help.

"But we can sail there. Toothless can show us the way!" Astrid tries to argue back.

"And then what? Face this dragon nearly the size of the volcano she lives in without a plan? We'll get everyone killed!" Hiccup retorts and she doesn't like that he has a point. They can't just go up to this dragon and punch it on the nose like his dad did to that Monstrous Nightmare weeks ago.

"But if we just talk to your dad,"

"He will stop listening to me the second I tell him about Toothless." Astrid would want to go against that, too, but if anyone would know the chief best, shouldn't it be Hiccup?

She doesn't like this. She doesn't like this more assertive side to Hiccup. He's refuting all her arguments with sound answers and she doesn't like that.

Is she afraid? A feeling she's quite familiar with, it's the facing of that fear that makes her as Fearless as any Hofferson before her, but this time, it's not a dragon that's making her feel this awful feeling, but the thought of losing Hiccup.

Even before Toothless, before he started acing dragon training, she would always look out for him. She'd always thought she would be the kind of warrior who would fight for those who couldn't, like him.

It's why, despite her grievances with him ever since he got suspiciously good during dragon training, she still willingly threw herself into what she thought was going to turn into a fight to the death with a Night Fury, the offspring of lighting and death itself. She'd done so without a second thought, without thinking of her herself or her life.

But what is Hiccup to her now? Why does his leaving affect her so much?

She feels like crying. Bottled up emotions are threatening to spill over and she doesn't know what to do with them.

Their conversation seemingly having ended, Hiccup reluctantly reaches for the saddle on Toothless' back.

"Wait-" Astrid stops herself and Hiccup looks back at her, hands gripping the saddle.

They both stare, each of them not knowing what to say.

She never thought she would miss him, though she never wanted him gone either, now she doesn't want him to leave ever.

"Please, don't say goodbye." She requests quietly.

Hiccup eyes her uncertainly, not wanting to make her feel bad, but not capable of just lying to her and tell her he's staying when he's not.

So he says nothing as he climbs onto the saddle.

At this point, Astrid doesn't know what else she can say to make him stay.

Once in the saddle, Hiccup looks back at her. Licking his lips, he thinks of what he could possibly say to her now.

"I won't be gone forever. I'm just going to try and come up with a plan. Maybe we can observe this thing, find out if it has any weaknesses. I promise I'll be careful." Hiccup says and Toothless rumbles in agreement, though Astrid can't quite tell.

She almost rolls her angry, watery eyes at that last part. He's Hiccup, he doesn't know how to be careful.

"I'll-I'll see you around, A-Astrid." Those are his first stutters he's spoken this entire conversation and Astrid sees a glimpse of a Hiccup she's more familiar with, but it's gone a second later.

Toothless coos her way, but just like she requested, Hiccup doesn't say anything before they take off and leave her behind.


End file.
